US23099A - Improvement in paper made from reeds - Google Patents

Description

PATENT OFFIC HENRY LOWE, OF BELLEVILLE, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN PAPER'MADE FROM REEDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 23,099, dated March 1, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY LOWE, of Belleville, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Article of Manufacture or Paper Made from Reeds; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

Man y eiforts have been made to manufacture paper from reeds; but upon reducing the reed fiber to a sort of pulp it has been found hitherto impossible to produce paper by any ofthe processes known to paper-makers. After a long series of experiments I have successfully reduced to practice the art of manufacturing reeds-the Arundt'nam'a lilacrosperma of Michaux, commonly used forifishing-polesinto paper, the said manufacture being readily and economically produced.

My invention consists in a new article of manufacture or paper made from reeds-the Arundinaria macrosperma of Michaux. V

To enable others skilled in the art to manufacture my paper, the following description is given.

I take the article called reeds, which are found in the swamps of the Carolinas and are commonly used for fishing-poles, being known to botanists as the Awmdinam'a macrospermct of Michaux. These reeds are evergreen and may 'be gathered at any season of the year; but

winter is preferable, as they then contain less sap, and the expense of gathering them, on the whole, is less than at other seasons. The reeds are run between two crushing-rollers, the lower one being speeded about one hundred and fifty revolutions, more or less, as desired, and driving the upper one. The rollers are fluted, so as to cut the stock about half an inch in length. Theupperrollerhassprings attached, so as to meet the inequalities of thickness of thereedsr Bythis means the reeds are crushed and cracked in pieces, so as to destroy the joints and facilitate the other operations of boilingand grinding. Two thousand four hundred pounds of the cracked reeds are furnished into a revolvingjron boiler, (diameter five feet by ten feet in let gut such as is commonly used for boiling paper-stock. To every one hundred pounds of reeds from ten to fifteen poundrfofbaiistic" soda are added and about one hundred'afid fittygallons of water. The boile'r'isthen-closed and set iir niotion and a pressure of steam, from five pounds to seventy,

is let into the boiler. I prefer to use from five to ten pounds, as it elfects the boiling completely, and the cost of the fuel is very light. The effect of using a higher pressure of steam is to make the stock dark for wrapping-paper; but the wasteis considerable whena-high pressure is employed. I prefer darkening the stock by using but ten pounds of caustic soda and boiling only ten hours, twelve hours being found the best length'of time to boil the stock, (unless it be required dark-colored,) and from twelve to fifteen pounds of caustic soda to one hundred pounds of reeds.

A tank furnished with an agitator which makes about fifteen revolutions (more or less) is constructed under the boiler. When the reeds are boiled the man-head is taken off, the boiler is set in motion, and the stulf falls into the tank, which has been previously supplied with sufficient water to make the stuff thin enough to pump and furnish into the pulpingengine invented and patented by Joseph Kingsland, J r., of Franklin, New Jersey. The stuff, which is kept agitated with the water, is pumped up and furnished into the engine, by which it can be at once reduced to pulp, run into the vat, and thence to the paper-machine.

Alum may be added to the stock either immediately after it leaves the boiler or after it is reduced to pulp. The object of using the alum is to strike the gummy matter from the alkaline solution for the purpose of lessening the waste; but its use is attended with practical difficulties. If added when the stock leaves the boiler, it makes the stock wild and difficult to pulp. If added later, it makes the stuff so slow that it cannot be removed from the wire-cloth without using suction-boxes with pumps of sufficient force to draw the water from it before it reaches the coucher, or the paper will crush. I find the best plan to operate upon the stock after boiling is to keep it warm in the vat after it is let down from the boiler, reduce it by means of the Kingsland engine to a kind of half-stuff, merely setting the engine so as to open out the fiber, and letting a stream of water flow with the stock thus prepared into a tank built in any suitable manner, so that the liquor can drain off. When drained, it intended for bleached stuff, water is run through the mass until the water comes away clear; then the stuff is bleached in any suitable way. Such processes as are used for bleaching straw will answer; but the purest bleach is effected by the process used for bleachin g cotton goods.

When the paper is to be made the washed or bleached stuffis introduced, with sufficient water, into a chest where it is kept in agitation. Thence it is pumped up and furnished into the Kingsland engine and reduced to pulp. I prefer to have the knives in said engine quite dull, so that they will pound the stock to pulp. Other fibrous matter may be split or linted out; but such treatment will not do for reeds, as the fiber is cut and the papertender. In fact, the reed pulp so treated will not make paper, for it cannot be got over the machine. The art of making paper from reeds depends on reduciu g the fiber to a very minute state of division-- more so even than with any other stock. The reduction must be effected by a pounding process, or some similar mechanical action. Reed pulp is most perfect when the fiber is reduced to its ultimate state of division, as deposited in the stock by nature. Yet it it must be remembered that the reduction must be effected in such manner as not to cut the fiber, or the paper cannot be produced, or it will be so tender as to have no value. I find the most successful mode of operating is to make the disk of the Kingsland engine with steel knives of from three-sixteen-ths to four-sixteenths inch on the face and the back and front plates of brass, composed of tin and copper, with double the number of knives used for grinding rags, said knives being about one-eighth inch (scant) on face, the object being to do a large amount of light pounding and rubbing on the stock, so asto disintegrate and limber the fiber. This engine is used for pulping the stock.

For making half-stuffI have in use a Kingsland engine, the disk made with knives a full one-eighth inch on face and cast-iron back, and front-plate knives afull one-eighth inch on face, same number as used for pulping rags, &c. This engine can be used for pulping reeds, but does not do such good work as the one described with brass plates. Or the Kingsland engine may be varied in the construction of the knives. Forinstance, it may be made the same as for grinding rags. It is not a vital feature that the engine should be constructed as Ihave described; but a variation of its construction is'attended with a depreciation of the quality of the paper.

The remaining details of the process ofmaking and finishing different kinds of paper may be conducted in the manner well known to paper-manufacturers.

, In the manner above described I have succeeded in making paper economically and of excellent quality.

Accompanying this application are twelve specimens of reed-paper made according to my invention. Specimens 1 and 2 were treated with alum. Specimen 3 was also treated with alum, allowed to stand twenty-five days, and ground a third time through a Kingsland engine. This third grinding did the fiber no harm,

though the same amount of grinding would have ruined other stock. Specimen 4 was made without alum. No. 5 is of the same, but is partially bleached. No. 6 is not bleached, butis more thoroughly washed. No.7 was made with a low pressure of steam, and the result proved highly advantageous in thesaving both of fuel and of stock. No. 8 is made from the same half-stuff as No. 7, chloride-of lime, copperas, and soda-ash being added. No. 9 is made from the odds and ends of the papers of the foregoing specimens. Othe'r stock beaten as much as this would have been utterly destroyed. Specimens 10 and 11 differ mainly in the relative thickness of the stud when furnished to the engine. The inferior quality of N o. 11 was caused by the thinness of the stuff. Specimen 12 is made from stuff partially rotted, subjected to high-pressure boiling, and from broken Manila paper.

As paper-manufacturers sort and mix different stocks in various proportions in order to produce in the paper peculiar qualities essential to the purpose for which it is designed, so I do not confine myself always to the employment of reed pulp alone, it beingsometimes requisite, in order to produce the desired qualities in some grades of paper, to add small quantities of other fibrous matter-mot for the purpose of economy, the reeds being the cheapest raw material known, nor yet to make reed pulp suitable for paper-making, it being in itself, when properly prepared, perfectly adapted thereto, but solely to supply some requisite feature in the paper to adapt it'to special purposes.

The process of making paper from the reeds above mentioned may be somewhat vvaried without departing from the principle of my iuvention. Thus cream of lime may be used in stead of caustic soda; but I prefer the latter. I do not therefore confine myself to the process above described, which process is here set forth merely to illustrate my invention and to enable others to make reed-paper.

I am aware that reed fiber has been reduced to a sort of pulp; but previous to myinvention it has been found impossible practically to manufacture paper therefrom.

I do not claim the above-described process.

for preparing reed fiber, a patent for the same having been granted me by the United States in 1858; nor do I here claim .the art of malt